Mardi Gras is just two weeks away and if I could snap my fingers to change one thing about my hometown of New Orleans’ biggest party of the year, I would swap the cheap beer filling the coolers up and down the parade route with wines from every corner of France. It’s a celebration with French origins, after all, and no beverage comes closer to reflecting the exuberance of the marching bands, the soul of the city’s cooking, and the art-meets-artisanship of the resplendent floats than honest, joyous, and terroir-driven wines made by passionate growers.
     But even more importantly, French wines pair magically with the kind of Creole and Cajun dishes you’ll feast on throughout the Mardi Gras season and beyond. Craving a shrimp po’ boy or fried oysters? Pour a glass of Charles Joguet’s fresh, delicate Chinon rosé or Henri Perrusset’s pure and extroverted Mâcon-Villages from southern Burgundy. If you want to go spicier with a dish like crawfish étouffée, red beans and rice, or jambalaya, turn to Jean Boxler’s honeyed and zesty Edelzwicker Reserve, Patrick Bottex’s bubbly Bugey-Cerdon rosé, or a high-toned, low-tannin cru Beaujolais from Guy Breton. If you can find it, my favorite Cajun recipes involve one of Louisiana’s most common fowl: duck. Few things are better in the cold months than braised duck legs, which invite a southern rosé like Trinquevedel’s stony, dark-hued Tavel, or a red like Fontsainte’s succulent Corbières or Gramenon’s joyous, violet-scented Syrah.
     Maybe I’m biased, but I firmly believe you should eat more Cajun and Creole cuisine all year round, even if you’ve never visited southern Louisiana. The flavors they conjure, for me, represent the pinnacle of regional American cooking, and when you add these French wines to the mix, the pairings will be hard to forget.